CHAPTER III. 
THE GOLDEN EAGLE 
(Aquila fulva ). 
“ He clasps the crag with hooked hands; 
Close to the sun in lonely lands, 
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands. 
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; 
He watches from his mountain walls, 
And like a thunderbolt he falls.” 
Tennyson. 
That we, in our language, with justice give the Eagle 
the title of Adler, * is evident to everyone who has beheld 
these splendid birds, either dead or alive. They are 
truly nobles amongst the feathered tribe : their lightning 
glance, their strength of build, their powerful weapons, 
all tend to substantiate their claim to nobility. The 
impression they give is a regal one; and Eagles are 
kings in their own domain,-—free, unconfined, and their 
own masters; like the lion,—king and lord among 
mammals. This royal aspect which we see in the Eagle 
has been recognised from time immemorial by every 
nation under the sun, so much so, that the kingly bird 
has often been made the subject of proverb and poem ; 
for the same reason it is still looked upon as the emblem 
of strength and lordly power. 
* Adler is derived from the German, Adel,—nobility.— W. J. 
